WalkingWomen writers
We first met Jay in Norway on a WalkingWomen holiday – an inspirational woman who talked of writing a book called Juicy Crones – all stories of women embracing later life and being free for the strangest adventures. Like ourselves and so many of our walkingwomen!
Jay invited Ginny, joint Owner/Director of WalkingWomen to join this group of women which can be found in Chapter 11.
“Free for the strangest adventures” comes from Virginia Woolf, who we at WalkingWomen are also interested in and follow in her footsteps. If you are one of those Virginia Woolf Fans, do snap up one of the last remaining places on our trip to Yegen in the Alpujarras in Spain In the Footsteps of Virginia Woolf holiday
And if you would like to read Jay’s book JUICY CRONES – order
We ask some of our writing women to contribute to our monthly update, and in this edition, we are lucky to hear from Jay about what walking means to her, read on…
It’s good for us
Let’s face it, most of the things we love doing- eating, drinking and lazing around are not good for us, but one of the things I love doing most is apparently very good for me, and it’s free to boot!
It has so many health benefits.
If walking were available in pill form, big pharma would bottle it and we’d all be buying. Its claim to health-giving properties is extraordinary; It is known to improve bone health, stamina, energy levels, memory skills, life expectancy, concentration, abstract reasoning and well-being. It can reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and depression. It may also help prevent dementia. Add in a few trees and the natural world, and something quite remarkable happens, so much so that ‘Forest Bathing’ and other ‘nature cures’ are now part of ‘social prescribing’.
It brings happiness
These are all very good reasons to walk, but that’s not why I walk. It brings me so much happiness that I would probably do it even if it were bad for me! Perhaps I walk because I grew up on Salisbury Plain where, frankly, there wasn’t much else to do. Walking there was high risk – but the snipers on training manoeuvres never got me, and I dodged all the tanks. The Plain was certainly wild, and that wild spoke to me from a very early age, I fell in love with the sensory theatre of the changing seasons and how each one made me feel.
I walk to write.
Fast forward a lifetime and my newfound post-retirement career of writing finds me enamoured with walking for yet more reasons. I walk to write. Solo hikes along Atlantic Headlands are my favourite place. Somehow the alchemy of walking enables words and ideas to slot into place like one of those coin sorting machines. I always carry a tiny notebook to catch the moment.
And sometimes I just love a group and walking side-by-side.
Discovering ‘Walking Women’ and ‘Love Her Wild’ has been a gift for this crone. Life has a habit of throwing us curve balls- the death of loved ones, relationship issues, financial crises and so on. Walking with like-minded women side-by-side, often an immediate bond of trust forms where we feel safe to share the most poignant moments of our lives, with lots of laughter too. It is then the magic happens, and a walk turns into a journey.
Thank you to Jay for writing, for walking and most importantly, for joining us on some of our trips to walk, connect and revive together.
